Report: ObamaCare would cut Medicare, raise costs

No surprise here considering what we already know about the Pelosi ObamaCare bill passed last week in the House. Medicare would be the first on the table when the knives come out to carve money out of every corner of the federal budget to fund this monstrosity. Furthermore, another study shows that the health care costs as a percentage of GDP would rise under Pelosi’s legislation.

A plan to slash more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending — one of the biggest sources of funding for President Obama’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s health-care system — would sharply reduce benefits for some senior citizens and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others, according to a government evaluation released Saturday.

The report, requested by House Republicans, found that Medicare cuts contained in the health package approved by the House on Nov. 7 are likely to prove so costly to hospitals and nursing homes that they could stop taking Medicare altogether.

Congress could intervene to avoid such an outcome, but “so doing would likely result in significantly smaller actual savings” than is currently projected, according to the analysis by the chief actuary for the agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid. That would wipe out a big chunk of the financing for the health-care reform package, which is projected to cost $1.05 trillion over the next decade.

How shocking that when you cut the amount of money Medicare pays for procedures, some facilities are likely to opt out of accepting it as a form of payment. Thus, seniors who are forced to rely on Medicare will have a dwindling amount of hospitals and primary care physicians which will agree to see them under the government system.

On another note, Politico is reporting that the Pelosi ObamaCare bill will increase health care costs, not actually reduce them. Wasn’t that argument the crux of the reasoning behind Obama’s desire for a government health care takeover? To reduce health care costs? Well it ain’t happening under this bill:

Democrats have promised that health reform would reduce health care costs, but legislation the House passed last week would increase costs over the next decade by $289 billion. By 2019, health costs would rise to 21.1 percent of GDP compared to 20.8 under current law, according to an actuarial report prepared by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“With the exception of the proposed reductions in Medicare payment updates for institutional providers, the provisions of H.R. 3962 would not have a significant impact on future health care cost growth rates. In addition, the longer-term viability of the Medicare update reductions is doubtful,” the report said.

In other words, outside of Medicare payment cuts to hospitals, the bill doesn’t curb increasing health care costs. And even the Medicare payment cuts will be difficult to sustain.

The analysis is more bad news for Democrats, who are facing increasing criticism that their reforms don’t do enough to control costs. Republicans released the analysis and jumped on the news.

The argument that we need ObamaCare to help cut costs is non-existent at this point since all data indicates it will not achieve that objective, it will exacerbate the problem.

ObamaCare is a poison pill for America and there has been no statistical estimates to prove otherwise, in fact they are all knocking down the claims from President Obama and the Democrats in congress.

We do not need a government solution, we need government to get out of the way and help formulate a better private sector solution for health insurance. Instead what we’re getting is higher costs, more bureaucracy and less freedom to make health care decisions.

I don’t understand why you even care about Medicare? Medicare is a government run program and the last time I checked you are against that.

Interesting how you are the first to cry foul when Medicare is being cut or when it suits you but you are the last one on board when they look to increase or improve medicare coverage for procedures.

Too bad you can’t see how much of a walking contradiction you are.

Bill Hedges

JD

That is incorrect at this late date.

For how many years has Americans been forced to pay into Medicare. What do you expect ? Should I say forget it. Pay us nothing. For the good of the Country.

You left Social security out. Should we stop payments cold turkey. This is a entitlement to.

There is no “walking contradiction ” just wish to find one on your part. I gave similar answer when you raised this before.

Social security and Medicare have been expanded and gone way far over expected cost. Add stealing from their trust funds, they are what $100 trillion +++ in debt? I don’t know exact amount. Now obama want to give ilegals my medicare I should bit my tongue. Never. No chance this new propose health plan will be in balance. Just check American States that have or use to have. Check the World.

So as paid up member I should not cash my check out of protest ?

Find yourself another way to guilt me.

Three counties in Texas was allowed to opt out of social security years ago. Those folks receive larger monthly payments and their trust fund is solvent than if they were in government plan. I posted the link but sure you did not read. Easy to look up. Something like- counties in Texas that opted out of social security.

On Glenn Beck over week-end he had bunch of Doctors on his show. Unlike obama’s hand picked Doctors, some was for obama’s plan. A Doctor said Germany, one of oldest Government health plans, was in trouble as all are that I know of. Restricting and long lines for health care. Deep in debt.

So tell me Country or State that has not great but working health care plan. That does not have long lines, reasonable MRI’s timely done for those needing, and gives expensive drugs when cheaper not avaiable ??? Not deep in debt.

In other words, give me reason that obama’s health plan will succeed… It’s not being express here. Even Kenny expresses he is against.

When was last time you even attempted to counter any negative remarks made here on this pending legislation ? That speaks volumes.

Way to gloss over the factual content of the story and attack me without merit on something you’re missing the point about.

Medicare is, unfortunately, now an entrenched government program. The government has forced it onto seniors whether they want it or not. Some need it and want it, some don’t.

However, that isn’t the point and I’m not debating the merits of Medicare, I do not care at this point, I only care about defeating ObamaCare before it ruins our health care industry.

My point about Medicare is that seniors are forced into the program yet this new ObamaCare bill is going to reduce the amount of facilities that will accept Medicare since it will reduce the amount the government will pay for procedures. That is what the report discusses, not my opinion, just a fact.

Otherwise, have fun defending the indefensible ObamaCare which will raise our health care costs, something you screamed and whined about needing to fix for months.

Bill Hedges

If I was President, I would do things different if I was head strong in passing a take over of a big part of our economy.

I would have none of that pork in stimulus and whatever named bills that became law. Spending their money wisely.

News would not be finding all these made up credited jobs to stimulus laws. Would publicly correct if found.

That drug price reduction plan he negotiated out with pharmacy companies would be in effect now.

That waste and fraud in social security and medicare would be hitting the news daily of investigators findings and prosecuting them.

I’d be honest about the real problems with pre-condition issue.

I’d really work with Republicans….

Open up health Companies to operate in all of America. Lower prices through competition quickly.

A tort reform would be a done deal by now.

Etc.

Since I am so popular I’d get line item veto and cross out bad stuff and pork.

All those contributing to my campaign that was special interest might not give me a dime again, but won’t need cause people will vote for me.

Then if I needed more health care bill passed, go for it.

And health bill would not include Acorn or any of their numerous aliases.

It is just funny how republicans use Medicare as a ralling cry and yet they have a long history of voting and passing legislation against it. Fact.

When you say “forced” do you refer to the 19 million americans who volluntarily signed up almost overnight the day Medicare was first opened for enrollment.

Bill Hedges

Jd

I guess you mean oxymoron ?

If you did. Maybe you can expain how it applies to my comment. The contradiction is in your mind.

I paid for medicare. Was forced.

So what if Republicans voted against medicare.And it passes. Thats how our system works JD. Law for all. Not law for party that got it passed. Didn’t you know that ?

No Jd. Me and many others. I was forced to pay into medicare. Try reading it again:

“For how many years has Americans been forced to pay into Medicare. What do you expect ? Should I say forget it. Pay us nothing. For the good of the Country.”

Sure I signed up for medicare when I could. I paid for it as required.

Why don’t you buy a new car. Pay for it. Leave car at dealership. Don’t drive. Only difference is I had to pay into medicare.

Like Nate said:

“Otherwise, have fun defending the indefensible ObamaCare which will raise our health care costs, something you screamed and whined about needing to fix for months.”

Except paraphase to medicare and your argument:

Be forced to pay per check for medicare, then don’t sign up for benefits if you don’t like social peoblems. Thats not ox·y·mo·ron thats stupid. I paid for it.

Had I ability to opt out of paying into it, you would have a point.

From my long comment glad there was a little you thought you could argue.

ox·y·mo·ron (ks-môrn, -mr-)
n. pl. ox·y·mo·ra (-môr, -mr) or ox·y·mo·rons
A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist.

Misspelling oxymoron is no big deal. We all misspell. What is sad is using $10 words and not knowing the meaning of the word. Especially when used in attempt to discredit others.

Forced to pay into medicare each month and signing up for benefits when eligible is no oxymoron.

Given option of not paying into it, I would have opted out. To do otherwise is a oxymoron in anybodies eyes.

Maybe In your eyes I was a Conservative all my life. In fact I am Conservative in resent years. As a Conservative I take what I paid for.

Maybe you would buy a car and let it sit unused at delealership.

IndependantLady

This bill has never been about true health care/reducing insurance costs – it has been a masquerade.
This bill is a means to bring us one step closer to government control, and shifting large segments of economy from private sector to government, mining and maintaining private personal information.
It is about increasing government agencies, creating levels of bureaucracies that will create government jobs filled by government/labor unions that will vote for government policies – can you say SEIU and Acorn?
Small Businesses will need to provide business information to ensure that they are in compliance with new policy – wow – more info to ensure that non-union business will become “unionized”.
This bill is truly a cancer on our country and it will spread the decaying cells through every nook and cranny. New regulations will arise because it is all about the Health of the citizens.

“When you say “forced” do you refer to the 19 million americans who volluntarily signed up almost overnight the day Medicare was first opened for enrollment.”

I say forced since today when you turn 65, you will be enrolled in Medicare whether you want it or not. Maybe you didn’t know that. Learn something new everyday.

For example, if I have private health insurance that I like, it doesn’t matter when I hit 65. I must now be enrolled in Medicare and might be able to keep my private drug coverage but that is about it.

So what I am saying is that right now, the government is forcing people on at age 65 Medicare but now they’re going to cut Medicare payments which means the people forced on Medicare at age 65 will have fewer options. Please try to understand, this isn’t rocket science.

I’d prefer a Medicare opt-out, then it wouldn’t matter. However, since everyone 65+ is forced into Medicare whether they want it or not, they’re getting screwed by ObamaCare.

I am not using it as a rallying cry, I am using it as an example of why government-run health care is not the solution as we see what is going to happen to patients who rely on Medicare. They will have fewer options thanks to ObamaCare yet they cannot opt out of Medicare if they wanted to.

Furthermore, you still avoided the fact that ObamaCare will raise health care costs, not lower them. I suspect it is because you can no longer defend it so you attack me regarding Medicare. Well done.

Also, JD, how is that Obama stimulus plan you joyfully supported back in Feb/March working for you? Remember, with Obama’s stimulus, unemployment will never go above 8% as we sit here at 10.2%. Care to defend that incompetence while you’re at it? I highly doubt it.

IndependantLady,

Bravo! You are right on the money. This bill is about control and taxation, not about improving quality, affordability or access to health care.

Bill Hedges

IndependantLady

You are right. This has failed in States that have/had it and Countries to.

Even obama’s home State got rid of it…

JD

Nate, the issue of rising healthcare cost is nothing new, rather, you just have no insight to see healthcare cost have been on the up under private coverage for 4 decades. Don’t turn rising healthcare costs into and argument unless you are willing to admit this.

So why is it ok to have healthcare cost rise under the private industry but it is completely unexceptionable for it to do so under a public? That said, i disagree with your assessment of skyrocketing healthcare costs under the current bills drafted. However, the point remains the same.

Secondly on the issue of Medicare, every American aged 65 or older is eligible for Medicare (true) and those who receive Social Security benefits are automatically enrolled.

I do recognize there is no way to opt out. Either you enroll in Medicare Part A, or you forfeit your Social Security benefits. This was probably instituted to make it easier for seniors to enroll in Medicare back in the day before private coverage became more commonplace.

No matter the reason, companies which offer retiree health benefits are terminating coverage when you turn 65 because of costs associated with private healthcare for the aging. In this case, even if the government weren’t forcing you to choose between Social Security and keeping your private health coverage, more and more companies are making the decision for you.

Finally, you didn’t answer the question of why you are using Medicare (a program you disagree with) as a symbol of how the healthcare bills are bad but turn around and ignore Medicare when legislation comes to improve it.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have a medicare opt out for you. I see no reason why you should have to participate if you don’t want to… I just believe that once you opt out then there is no going back. I don’t want any of this Liberal crap where they try and save all the idiots who made the mistake and are without insurance when their companies drop them.

You don’t have to be a part of some special private club to get a government job. So creating jobs through government bureaucracy is not actually a bad thing. I work for the Florida Department of Health, a government job. I like it very much. My mother works for a government funded business as a nurse as well. 🙂 So that point IndependantLady is not a winning one.

Of the subject, someone brought this to my attention today at work. They told me that FoxNews won a case at the Supreme Court that they are allowed to pass false information via News Broadcasts. I have no researched it yet, but at the top of my google search was this link:

P.S. I am still not afraid of Obamacare. Perhaps I am crazy or perhaps I just don’t feel like my life will come to an end due to socialism. A friend of mine told me that while he was sailing in the Caribbean he acquired a blood clot in his arm. He almost lost his arm and had to be rushed to the nearest island to have the clot removed. This island did not have socialized medicine and thus garnished his bank account which contained $15,000 in it. He became homeless with no money due to this. He stated if they would have shipped him one island over, to a country with socialized medicine, the operation would have been free. He would keep his arm and his money and have been able to more easily reestablish himself at the end of is Sailing expedition. Ah well, I’m still opting to leave the country after school anyway. 🙂 Perhaps before, where I can go to a College of Medicine, and graduate without becoming $300K in debt due to my graduate school education.

I sort of wish Obamacare would just hurry up and pass and see whose predictions were more accurate. Then when a republican president takes office, see what happens, the waiting is brutal! LoL

JD, a huge part of the liberal argument for letting the government take over one-sixth of the US economy was to lower costs yet studies show they will rise higher under ObamaCare.

If ObamaCare won’t lower costs as promised time and time again, then there is no argument for it.

The bottom line is that if you take what is wrong with private insurance and create legislation out of it, you will not solve the problem.

JD, you have never produced a convincing argument for ObamaCare, especially given the facts we have now that you can’t refute.

On the other hand, we have report after report poking holes in the promises made by ObamaCare proponents.

Meanwhile, Obama’s stimulus has created 10.2% unemployment and ObamaCare will raise costs and lower the quality of care.

Bill Hedges

As the wind blows in different direction, Kenny is for or against health care bill.

I think you will see Sarah repeal many of obama’s bills if they become law.

JD wrote:

“Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have a medicare opt out for you. I see no reason why you should have to participate if you don’t want to… I just believe that once you opt out then there is no going back. I don’t want any of this Liberal crap where they try and save all the idiots who made the mistake and are without insurance when their companies drop them.”

So do you feel the same about pre-condition for health plan ?

A healthy young man pays the penalty and opts out of health plan. He finds out he has cancer and wants to opt in. Are you going to deny him health insurance now ? Basically bankrupting his family and/or condemning him to death ?

That would make you a cold hearted murderer. In other words a Conservative. As liberals see it?

Bill Hedges

JD

JD wrote:

“Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have a medicare opt out for you. I see no reason why you should have to participate if you don’t want to… I just believe that once you opt out then there is no going back. I don’t want any of this Liberal crap where they try and save all the idiots who made the mistake and are without insurance when their companies drop them.”

I said “So do you feel the same about pre-condition for health plan ? ” after opting out

Watch out for oxymoron by your answer !!!

Bill Hedges

Correction__ ‘Previously opting out’ instead of ‘after opting out.’

Bill Hedges

“DOCTOR SHORTAGE”

By DICK MORRIS

November 17, 2009

“Joseph Stubbs, president of the American College of Physicians — the second-largest doctors’ group in the country — confirms that “the supply of doctors just won’t be there” for the 30 million new patients President Barack Obama wants to cover. Noting that the doctor shortage is “already a catastrophic crisis,” Stubbs noted that underserved areas in the U.S. currently need almost 17,000 new primary care physicians even before Obama’s proposals are enacted.”

DickMorris.com

JD

lol. you kill me, nate.

Bill Hedges

JD

Just goes to show you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

But then, a horse is considered a dumb animal compared to man.

Bill Hedges

JD

You’re just mad I proved you committed a oxymoron and I didn’t.

JD

It is funny watching you guys chase your tails. I expect it of Bill but it is shocking watching, Nate.

I don’t know how you all can defend healthcare cost raising in the private market but slam it in the public. Either it is bad all together or it isn’t. It is pure denial if you can’t admit the failure of the private market concerning healthcare costs.

Bill Hedges

Too bad you don’t keep up on health care. If you did, you would join the polls which are against.

Seems you are following obama’s tail. A minority.

Right now plan is in the RED.

Why if passed and so great does it wait till 2013-2015 to kick in… Guy wants to be re-elected…

What Country and/or State that has public health care that does not ration and is not deep in debt ? Why don’t you tell me JD. I keep asking and asking and askig. No answer ?

The American Medical Association urges Congress to preserve health care for seniors by blocking a sizeable Medicare cut to doctors. If nothing is done by December 1, doctors will be receiving 25% less from Medicare, which will have negative repercussions for the elderly health care, the AMA (American Medical Association) announced today.